Slowest Movie Weekend In Five Years–It Just Happened.
And the non-news tradition continues in the movie arm of Kwanzoo–the new release Bangkok Dangerous pulled in a measly seven point eight million dollars this weekend to take the number one slot.
This is, of course, a really, really bad sign for studios when even an action movie with Nic Cage can’t drum up interest. This was just another weekend in September. You may remember that last week’s figures were pretty dismal, what with Labor Day and Hurricane Gustav taking a run at the Big Easy and all, but this weekend had no such onus on it. In fact, nothing really separates this weekend from any other.
Of course, studio execs have a whole list of ready excuses–fall premiere TV season’s cranking up! they cry as though it means something. Not that any shows have actually started yet, but it’s going to happen any day now, and people are apparently saving up their oohs and aahs for the next round of small-screen pablum. This also fails to explain how this makes the SEVENTH CONSECUTIVE WEEKEND that box office grosses are sliding based on grosses from one year ago. Naturally, there’s also a litany of excuses for THAT point, including political conventions (because Americans can’t get enough politics!) and severe weather in the Gulf States (where apparently half of the moviegoing population lives), but then they hit on the one chord that I’ve been strumming for months: America’s Issue Number One–The Economy.
Congratulations, studio execs. You’ve finally figured out that people aren’t going to the movies because you’ve made it prohibitively expensive, which is why your DVD arms are doing so well while your theatrical revenues continue a two-month drop through the floor.
The next question is, what do you plan to do about it?
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Actually, lots of shows have started. 90210, Sons of Anarchy, and True Blood all come to mind off the top of my head. But your data is right, of course - I knew it was a bad sign when my local theater didn’t have any more than 4 showings of a single movie. It’s a slow week. Then again, slow weeks happen every year. And Bangkok Dangerous looked terrible, maybe that’s what people caught on to.
You’re right on that point Liz–I think SoA started just this week. Same with 90210 and True Blood. The key thing is that this is the seventh down week in a row. Exactly like you said, slumps happen ALL the time. But seven weeks in a row suggests a little more than a slump going on.